Reiser Prosecution Wobbles Under Police Forensics Gaffe – Update

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Reiser Prosecution Wobbles Under Police Forensics Gaffe – Update

OAKLAND, California – A forensic specialist testified here Wednesday she had made a mistake when analyzing blood found in the house where Hans Reiser's wife was last seen.

The fragments of blood, the scientist testified Tuesday, contained DNA from the Linux guru and his wife, Nina Reiser. The authorities discovered it on a pillar in an entryway in the Oakland hills house two weeks after the 31-year-old woman went missing Sept. 3, 2006.

But on Wednesday, the scientist testified on cross examination that errors she made meant it was unclear whether there was two sources of blood – meaning it could be the wife's or the husband's – or blood from both of them. She testified she was not "100 percent certain" whose blood was on the pillar.

It's an important distinction. There are two pieces of forensic evidence linking the husband to allegedly killing his wife. The other forensic evidence is a sleeping bag cover found in the defendant's car stained with the woman's blood. The rest of the evidence is circumstantial, including the husband's front passenger seat vanishing.

Defense attorney Richard Tamor suggested that the scientist should have swabbed the pillar in at least two locations – and the scientist agreed. Swabbing the entire area – about the size of an iPod Nano – might have mixed the blood together or might have mixed one source of blood with some other source of DNA, like saliva, testified scientist Shannon Cavness, of the Oakland Police Department.

"If you had to do it again, you would do if differently?" Tamor asked Cavness, regarding her swabbing of the pillar.

"That's right."

Jurors were clearly engaged by the testimony. The defendant, 44, is a renowned programmer of open-source file systems and is jailed without bail. He claims his wife, who was divorcing him, left the country to Russia, where the couple met, and abandoned the estranged couple's two young children.

"When there is a mixture, and when there is blood involved, you don't know whether two people contributed DNA from blood or whether one person contributed DNA from blood and another contributed from saliva?" Tamor continued.

"I would say that's a problem with the analysis of this particular pillar sample," the scientist responded.

After a short recess, Tamor asked: "You can't tell whose blood that is?"

"The most reasonable answer is that the DNA is from the blood versus coming from some other biological material. I really doubt somebody licked the pillar," the scientist testified.

"That's just an assumption?" Tamor asked.

"I cannot be 100 percent certain," the scientist replied.

__ANALYSIS __after the jump.

The day's session ended early because a staffer for Alameda County Judge Larry Goodman (shown right) had a personal emergency. Still, it was the first time in the three-month trial where the defendant clearly got the upper hand.

The session spread some seeds of doubt on jurors regarding the forensic evidence. But there's still the woman's blood found on the sleeping bag cover discovered in the defendant's vehicle – but that's it insofar as the forensic evidence is concerned. And DNA testing cannot determine the age of blood stains.

The remaining evidence is circumstantial. Viewed individually, it could be tossed up as a coincidence. Viewed collectively, that's the jury's job. Here's a brief recap on some of that evidence:

*Nina Reiser is last seen at the defendant's house in the Oakland hills.

*Dozens of witnesses testify that the woman would never voluntarily abandon her children. (The defendant claims his wife left the country to Russia, where she is from and where the couple met, as part of an evil plot. The plot was to marry an American, obtain U.S. citizenship and disappear.)

*Hans Reiser shows up at his kids' school after Nina went missing, but before authorities were alerted. It was his wife's day to pick up the kids.

*His front seat was gone from his vehicle after police discovered it. The floor boards were soaked wet and two books about murder were found inside.

*Days after the woman vanished, the defendant was seen at night washing his driveway or something on the driveway. He was wearing heavy clothes on a hot fall night.

*He exhibited what police said were "counter-surveillance" maneuvers when he thought police were tailing him.

*The defendant told parents at a school party for his children that he'd be better off without his wife.